Steve Hansen

New Zealand All Blacks coach Steve Hansen on Thursday promised “a performance to be proud of” in Saturday’s Rugby World Cup semifinal against the South African Springboks.

Hansen only made 1 chnage to his side with Joe Moody coming in for loosehead prop Wyatt Crockett who suffered a groin strain in the All Blacks 62 / 13 quarterfinal win over France.

“We’re ready to go,” Hansen said ahead of the Twickenham clash.

The defending champions had prepared well during the week to “produce another game we can all be proud of” after demolishing France.

“Though we’ve met many times over the years, we’ve only played 3 times at the Rugby World Cup and these Cup finals matches are totally different,” Hansen said.

“They have a live-or-die nature to them and both teams will be desperate to advance.

“As a group we’re really looking forward to this challenge.

“It will require a massive amount of intensity and composure and accurate skill execution. This team has high expectations of itself and enjoys the big occasions.”

Moody was called into the New Zealand side after Tony Woodcock was injured out of the tournament in their final pool game against Tonga.

This is fewest changes the All Blacks have made to their starting line-up so far in the tournament and the smallest between successive Rugby World Cup matches since making no changes at all to the side that defeated Australia in the 2011 semifinals and went on to beat France in the final.

Wing Julian Savea, who scored 3 of the All Blacks’ 9 tries against France, has scored 8 tries to equal the single tournament record held by South Africa’s Bryan Habana, who he faces on Saturday as well as All Blacks great Jonah Lomu.

The All Blacks matchday squad has an average age of 28 and has a total of 1 318 caps of experience.

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